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The Ministry of Education and Science in cooperation with the Latvian Council of Science is organizing a webinar for researchers and research institutions on the communicating research to policy-makers. The webinar will be held in English on Monday, June 15, 14.00-15.00 (Riga/Helsinki time). Participants will receive a brief summary of the main conclusions from a recently published study on the use of evidence in the Latvian Parliament (Saiema) and hear practical examples of impact pathways and best practices for communicating scientific evidence to parliaments, governments, ministries and international organizations.

MEP Ivars Ijabs will share insights on transitioning from academia to policy-making and Gavin Costigan, Chief Executive of the Foundation for Science and Technology will share best practices from the UK and discuss how knowledge transfer from researchers to policy-makers can be systematically supported. During the webinar participants will be able to ask questions to all the panelists.

Target audience: researchers, research institution leadership and administration, policy-makers, NGOs.

Panelists:
Gavin Costigan is the Chief Executive of the Foundation for Science and Technology, a position he's held since March 2019. The Foundation provides a platform for discussion between government, Parliament, industry and the research community, and Gavin is responsible for managing the Foundation and delivering its programme of activities, including discussion events, a Future Leaders Programme, and a weekly podcast. Previous to working at the Foundation, Gavin was at the University of Southampton, most recently as Director of Public Policy - brokering relationships between researchers and policy makers, delivering training to academics on how to interact with policymakers, and increasing the policy impact of research at the University. He was the inaugural chair of the UK’s Universities Policy Engagement Network (UPEN).

Arnis Sauka is Professor and the Director of the Centre for Sustainable Business at Stockholm School of Economics in Riga (Latvia), and founding member of IfM Research Fellow Network (Bonn, Germany). He has a Ph.D. from the University of Siegen (Germany) and has been a Visiting Scholar at Jönköping International Business School (Sweden) and University College London (UK). Arnis has also been involved in management and consultancy activities, including working as Vice Rector for Studies and Research at Ventspils University College (2011-2013). He is a board member of the Foreign Investment Council in Latvia (FICIL) (since 2019), NGO BASE (Business Against the Shadow Economy) (since 2015). From 2011-2014 he was Advisor to the Minister of Health on Financial and Economic Issues.

Ivars Ijabs is an MEP elected in 2019. representing the political alliance “Development/For!”. Prior to entering politics, he was a well-known political scientist, publicist, associate professor at the University of Latvia and researcher at the Institute of Social and Political Research of the University of Latvia. In the European Parliament, Ivars Ijabs serves on the Committee on Industry, Research and Energy (ITRE), the Committee on Economic and Monetary Affairs (ECON) and the Committee on the Internal Market and Consumer Protection (IMCO), representing the Renew Europe political group.

Signe Mezinska is Associate Professor at the University of Latvia, Faculty of Medicine. She holds PhD in Sociology and MSc in Bioethics, and is teaching medical ethics, bioethics and sociology of health and illness for more than 20 years. Her scientific interests include biomedical research ethics, ethics of biobanking, reproductive ethics and rational use of medicines. Currently she holds a research grant on ethically and socially responsible governance of research biobanks funded by Latvian Council of Science, as well as is consortium member and senior researcher in H2020 project VIRT2UE. Since 2013 Signe serves as an ethics expert for evaluation of EC FP7 and H2020 projects, she is also working as an ELSI expert for BBMRI-ERIC and is serving as a vice-chair of UNESCO International Bioethics Committee. She is a board member of NGOs Veselības projekti Latvijai and HAI Europe Association which both are involved in policy making in the field of access to medicines and rational use of medicines.

Valts Kalniņš is an assistant professor at the University of Latvia and an independent consultant on matters of corruption prevention including public-sector ethics policies, conflict-of-interest frameworks, corruption risk assessments. A top Latvian expert on corruption, he co-authored the OECD publications “Asset Declarations for Public Officials – A Tool to Prevent Corruption” (2011), “Prevention of Corruption in the Public Sector in Eastern Europe and Central Asia” (2015), and “Business Integrity in Eastern Europe and Central Asia” (2016). In 2015, he drafted the Code of Ethics for Public Administration Employees upon commission by the State Chancellery of Latvia. Valts Kalnins regularly works as consultant on corruption prevention in Latvia and internationally (Armenia, Belarus, Moldova, Russia, Ukraine, countries of South East Europe, etc.). He was a researcher at the Centre for Public Policy PROVIDUS, a Riga-based non-governmental think tank from 2003 until 2017.

Moderator: Aleksandrs Mārtiņš Blūms, RIS3 Expert in SSH, Ministry of Education and Science of the Republic of Latvia